The Righteous Mind

I have a Righteous Mind, but maybe not a "Western" one?

Having finished The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt , I suspect I will have more to say later. For now, I’m just sharing the mood I’m left with.

This was written primarily for a US/Western audience, and was published in 2012 during the Barack Obama presidency. For loyalists to the US “Democratic” party that are still in the dark as to why their movements have no cohesion, but the movements that have since taken over the "Republican" party (like MAGA, Evangelicals, tech oligarchies) do, this book may be helpful to you. It feels like so much is missing from the Western "liberal" mindset that is allowing a Western/Eurocentric/White supremacist ideologies to gain so much power and influence.

The more I read this book the more I felt disconnected from the culture I live under (Canada, also part of British North American settler-colonialism like the USA).

I think the book is useful for me to learn more about the dominant culture in Canada and the USA, and the culture wars within that dominant culture. I may not agree with either “side” of those wars, but at least I can better understand the things they think are important that don't make any sense to me.

The book describes "conservatives" as having more group cohesion in their thinking and "liberals" as being more individualistic. This makes more sense to me than the claim that "Capitalists" are individualistic and "Communists" are more collective, even though all these Eurocentric economic theories are built upon Anthropocentrism, Androcentrism and other supremacist ideologies and largely only different in which groups of humans should receive the spoils of exploitation. I’ve observed conservatives being more groupish in my 5+ decades so far, and have seen little that actually enables strong solidarity within western "liberal" movements.

I am curious to hear from anyone else who had read this book, and what they thought about it.

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